Hard disk drives are common information storage devices. Referring to FIG. 1A, a conventional disk drive 100 typically includes a series of rotatable disks 111, a motor spindle 112 for spinning the disks 111, an Head Stack Assembly (HSA) 116 which is rotatable about an actuator arm axis 113 for accessing data tracks on disks during seeking, and a printed circuit board assembly (FPC) 117 connected with the HSA 116. The HSA 116 includes at least one drive arm 114 and one HGA 115.
Referring to FIG. 1B, the HGA 115 includes a slider 121 having a reading/writing transducer imbedded therein, and a suspension 190 to load or suspend the slider 121 thereon. As illustrated, the suspension 190 includes a load beam 123, a base plate 125, a hinge 124 and a flexure 122, all of which are assembled together.
FIG. 1C shows a more detailed structure of a tail of the flexure 122. As illustrated in the figure, a plurality of electrical traces 131 along a length direction of the flexure 122, a plurality of bonding terminals 150 and a plurality of testing pads 135 are formed on the flexure 122. One end of the electrical traces 131 passes through the bonding terminals 150 and the testing pads 135 and electrically connects to a preamplifier (not shown), the other end thereof extends into the suspension tongue (not shown). Concretely, each of the bonding terminals 150 has a bonding pad 132 and a hole 133 formed in the bonding pad 132. And the hole 133 is shaped as a key. Referring to FIGS. 1B-1C, when bonding the bonding terminals 150 to the FPC 117 with solder, the solder will flow out from the holes 133 when heating. So the flexure 122 is bonded to the FPC 117.
Because of the shape of the holes 133, there is not enough area to place dynamic performance testing pads 135 for dynamic performance testing. So an additional area 134 is added on the tail of the flexure 122 for placing the dynamic performance testing pads 135. And the additional area 134 with the dynamic performance testing pads 135 will be moved after the dynamic performance testing. Due to the additional area 134, the length of the flexure 122 is increased and, in turn, the cost of the suspension will also be increased in mass production.
Thus, there is a need for an improved suspension, HGA and disk drive unit that do not suffer from the above-mentioned drawbacks.